A sister city delegation takes part in parade and Amigo Club activities
By Kernan Turner
Sister City Guanajuato maintained its traditional participation in Ashland’s Fourth of July celebrations this year, sending a city councilor and a summer festival queen to ride in the annual parade and to spend a week joining in related activities.
The delegation was led by Stefani “Fanny” Marlene Martinez Armendariz, financial and legal director of the Guanajuato City Council. She was accompanied by her daughter, Emma Navarro Martinez. The other official member of the delegation was summer festival queen Paola Gomez Lopez.
Sky Naomi Smith, the Ashland High School ambassador who accompanied a city delegation to Guanajuato in June, also rode in the Fourth of July Parade.
In addition, Guanajuato artist Loreta Rangel, who painted the Guanajuato mural on Calle Guanajuato, was in town, hosted by Amigo Club members Linda and David Young. And two Amigo Club scholarship exchange students from the University of Guanajuato, Karen Lopez Villanueva and Joaquin Torres, accompanied the visitors in their activities.
Ashland and Guanajuato have been sister cities for 54 years. Guanajuato has sent delegations each year to Ashland’s Independence Day celebrations except for those of 2020 and 2021, curtailed at the height of the COVID pandemic.
The busy calendar of activities, coordinated by the Ashland Amigo Club, included the following:
- Breakfast at El Tapatio Restaurant hosted by Ashland Mayor Tony Graham.
- Singing the Mexican national anthem during Fourth of July events at the Lithia Park bandstand.
- A tour of the Reeder Reservoir, source of the city’s water supply, led by Public Works Superintendent Mike Morrison.
- A private flight over the Ashland watershed and reservoir, piloted by City Councilor Jeff Dahle.
- Luncheon at the Hannon Library at SOU, hosted by university President Rick Bailey and Provost Susan Walsh.
- Swimming at the Applegate Reservoir.
- Breakfast at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints arranged by SOU professor Vincent Smith and his wife, Tamara.
- City tour provided by Amigo Club founder Señora Chela Tapp-Kocks.
- The annual Amigo Club outdoor party at the residence of Suzanne and Richard Haveman.
- Transportation to all sites in an SOU van driven by Amigo Club member Nancy Lynch.
- The 10th annual Spanish-language Poetry Recital at the residence of Amigo Club President Betzabé “Mina” Turner and her husband, Kernan, known in Guanajuato as “Mino.”
- An afternoon of sailing at Lake of the Woods on a Hobie Cat provided by Amigo Club member Sean VanAusdall.
- A jet boat ride down the Rogue River sponsored by the Amigo Club.
- An Oregon Shakespeare Festival backstage tour and matinee viewing of “Romeo and Juliet.”
Amigo Club’s Entre Amigos (Between Friends) column about Ashland ties to its sister city Guanajuato, Mexico, appears periodically. Longtime AP reporter and bureau chief Kernan Turner is an Ashland resident and Amigo Club member.
